MADDEN NFL 2003 ARTICLES

August 8, 2008 - Electronic Arts' Madden series is a dynasty greater than any in professional sports. In the two decades since its inception, the Madden series has helped build and destroy console empires. It outlasted the rise and fall of SEGA's hardware in America, and contributed to both. It was key in boosting EA from a small independent developer to an international publishing giant. Simply put, the Madden series is the most powerful franchise on the continent.
The name Madden has now come to mean so much more than just a Hall of Fame coach and commentator. It's practically synonymous with video game football. Brands like this aren't simply bought and licensed; they're built and fiercely defended. As the Madden series turns 20, we take a look back at how EA took on all comers to create the highest grossing series North America has ever seen.

August 6, 2008 - Last week, we went through the annals of Madden history and found the 10 Worst Quarterbacks in Madden History, a list that no quarterback would ever want to find himself on. Alas, Wally Richardson and company now likely will beat us up if they ever recognize us in public.

August 1, 2008 - Yesterday, we detailed the Ten Worst Quarterbacks in Madden History, so it's only natural that today, we follow up that piece by looking at the ten worst teams in the history of the franchise. Of course, as hard it is to rate individual players in a game, using those players to formulate ratings for teams is even more difficult guesswork: Keep in mind that the lowest-rated teams in Madden '08 were the Vikings and Titans, and they went a combined 18-14 when the real action started.

July 31, 2008 - The quarterbacks of today have grown up playing one game their entire lives: Madden. From their earliest days as Pop Warner football players, they've dreamt about finding a triple-covered receiver in the last minute of the Super Bowl to either set off a pixellated celebration, get a Madden Card, or 30 Achievement Points.

July 23, 2008 - One of the complaints that gamers have regarding the Madden franchise, whether they're fans of it or not, is that the game "...is just a roster update" and never has any new features. Whether that's true or not is another debate that's largely semantic, but something that we can look at and actually analyze is how successful the features implemented in each year's version of Madden actually are. Do the new features introduced in Madden actually stick around? How often do they get retooled? By starting back at the initial release of John Madden Football for the Sega Genesis and SNES in 1990, we can actually see if the game's newest features become established hits or epic failures.

June 14, 2007 - Seeing a beloved franchise crumble into a defunct mishmash of horrid ideas and misconstrued concepts seems to happen all too often in this day and age of money grabbing bottom-liners. A great game is relatively easy to create in comparison to what it takes to sustain that greatness throughout an entire series. Some franchises are great at keeping a high level of quality, whereas others take a swan dive into the shallow end of the pool. It might not be so bad when a company makes a one-hit-wonder that then flops, but when a series has been in our hearts for generations of systems and then takes an incredible downturn in quality, that's when we have to turn our hateful gaze to the publishers responsible.
We're usually not in the business of calling people out for shoddy development jobs, but in some cases, an exception must be made. In this article we'll detail some of our most beloved series that have taken a grave turn for the worse, and then tell you how future installments can right the ship. And yes, not even Electronic Arts will be spared this time around.

August 26, 2002 - Handheld football begins and ends with Madden. Basically a distilled version of the old SNES or Genesis version of the popular series, GBA Madden is a simplified version of its larger, more complex console brethren. Is it inferior to those titles? Of course it is. Is it fun? Of course it is. Whether you play it out of nostalgia or convenience (it's hard dragging an Xbox on the plane, after all), play it. Madden NFL 2003 is the best handheld football game around (all respect to the Mattel's Classic Football), period.

May 22, 2002 - Electronic Arts' booth is almost always the loudest, craziest booth at the show. Sporting a massive jumbotron that spills its vibrant message down on the worshipful denizens below, it is truly a sight to behold. This year is no different. As always, the booth was cram-packed with sports fiends, Middle Earthlings and a bevy of slack-jawed exhibitors, all wondering how they can reach the level of success that EA has enjoyed of late.